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Facebook announced that they are planning on implementing a new policy change that will ban atheist members, groups and pages due to cyber bullying.

During a closed-door session with the board of directors and shareholders Wednesday evening, Facebook executives released a new set of new controversial policy changes, which will be implemented as we move into the next year.

Beginning at midnight, January 1st 2016 Facebook will take a stance against atheism by limiting their influence on the popular social network website. All atheist related Facebook groups and pages will be disbanded immediately, while Facebook users who post too much atheistic propaganda will receive warnings and repeat posters will have their posting and commenting privileges permanently revoked.

Facebook initially decided upon this action due to the high level of reports of hostility, harassment and even assault from various Facebook users. It’s no secret that Facebook diligently monitors trends and activity on their platform and here are some of their published analytics showing the high number of cyber bullying and harassment by atheist users.

Facebook has released their official announcement here.

“We normally don’t take action against our users for their beliefs, regardless of how controversial they may be. However we will not stand idly by and watch a hate group harass, cyber bully or use forms of intimidation against our other users. Earlier this year a Facebook user, and mother of 3, who ran a peaceful religious group lost her job after hundreds of atheists contacted her employer. They demanded she be removed from her position based on her religious beliefs, threatening that if the employer did not comply they would have their online presence attacked with negative reviews. Back in February, several people were actually physically attacked in public by atheist users who were trying to intimidate them online. One attack was so bad that a woman who moderated a religious Facebook group was hospitalized after four full grown adult men physically beat her while shouting obscene anti-religious insults, leaving her with a fractured jaw, three bruised ribs, and a black eye. While many atheists may not take part in this kind of violent and despicable behavior, it’s a growing trend and unfortunately we need to take a strong stand against it. We are giving our atheist users 7 months to make arrangements to close down their Facebook pages and groups, and will begin enforcing our new policy changes beginning January 1st, 2016 at 12:01 a.m.”

IFLScience.org was lucky enough to speak in private with a Facebook Official who wishes to remain anonymous who gave us a glimpse of some of the atheist trigger words and content that will be used to identify atheists and send automated warning starting in the new year.

Below is a partial list of the over 500 phrases and words Facebook will be monitoring:

Sky Daddy (or variations of)
Darwinism
Muh (or variations of)
Durr (or variations of)
Mur (or variations of)
Snopes
Logical Fallacy
Fallacy
Bestiality
Godless
Religiotard (or variations of)
Various out of context religious text.
Brontosaurus
Big Bang
Hot Pockets
Crystal Meth
New Fedora
Trolls
Chemtrails
Conspiracy
Gawd
The Pope Said
Any reference to Godless Machine
Any reference to Snopes

Facebook will not ban all Atheism related material. Atheists will still be allowed to take part in paid advertisements with Facebook to promote their websites, retail stores and products, but all ads will have a more thorough manual screening before they are approved. There will also be no moderation of Facebook messages either.

Facebook is not the only ones to take notice of the rise in Atheism based harassment. The organization “Stop Cyber Bullying Now” recently made a statement on the subject. They have also been developing a campaign to fight back against the increase of Atheist cyber bullying and plan to bring national attention the statistics published recently by the National Cyber Bullying Statistics and Research Institute.

Many distraught Atheists are speaking out against the new policy changes, with several larger Atheist organizations planning on staging several protests up until this New Years Eve to voice their opinions on the new rules. Iflscience Organization was able to speak with one of those who will be affected. Bob Joseph Silveria Jr. AKA Bobbert S, the spokes person for the Atheist Organization “1 Million Atheists Against Religious Freedom” had this to say.

“I just can’t believe this Sh*t! It *beep* p*sses me off man! I don’t see what the big *beep* deal is, religious *beep* shouldn’t have any *beep* rights to begin with. I can’t get tax exempt status for praying to a *beep* invisible spaghetti monster why the *beep* do they get it. I mean for *beep* sake these *beep* idiots deserve to *beep* die for being so *beep* stupid. Who gives a *beep* sh*t if we try and make them smarter by beating the truth in their ignorant *beep* skulls. Its about time they *beep* woke the *beep* up. Facebook can go suck God’s *beep* *beep* for all I *beep* care. This is a *beep* violation of our right to Free Speech. Apparently these *beep* sh*theads havnt heard of something called the constitution. Just think of how *beep* incredible the world would be if religion was made illegal. Religit*rds are whats *beep* wrong with this country with all their war and *beep* murder they committed over some stupid *beep* sky fairy-tale. I mean, Atheist Leaders in the past like Pol Pot, Mousolinni, Stalin, Kim Jun Un don’t count really because they were clearly not atheist enough in the right way....I’m sick of Religious idiots throwing that *beep* sh*t in our faces all the time. So *beep* this s**t we are taking a *beep* stand!”

While empty threats lacking follow through are common traits among self identifying Atheists, it’s hard to tell whether or not a protest will take place. With the concerning increase of high profile Atheist crimes, it comes as no surprise that Facebook would wan’t to announce their new policy changes to the public so early on. As of now the anti-atheist policies are set to move forward and become a permanent change in the way Facebook allows it’s users to conduct themselves online as of January 2016.